Persephone Jackson and the Olympians, Reading the books
by GallifreyanDemigoddess
Summary: Right after defeating Gaea the only thing the demigods wanted was peace. But no. Now they were send back in time to read books about their lives and the war. Persephone Jackson seriously needed a break. BoO Spoilers. Please forgive me if I made some grammar mistake. English's not my native Lenguage.
1. Chapter 1

**August 5, 2014 **

It was a normal day at Camp Half Blood. The Romans had just left, the world was saved. No more prophecies. No more wars. No more quests...It was the perfect ending.

Persephone Jackson knew she should have been happy, but as she though about Leo...she felt sad. It was not fair what had happened. Leo Valdez was dead, and Piper and Jason were heartbroken. Even Percy herself felt pretty sad about it, and she didn't shared much with Leo. But they were friends...sort of.

So when Annabeth told her that they were going to college together on New Rome, and that they could live together as long as they wanted there on New Rome, Percy was so happy she let out the loudest whoop she could muster. Lots of campers turned their way.

Annabeth laughed at her best friend. "Oh, Percy."

"Thats the best new I heard in a long time," Percy said, still smiling like crazy, doing a little dance without moving her feet.

Percy saw Nico di Angelo approaching them both with a curious look, Will Solace waiting for him at the porch of the infirmary.

"Hey, man," Percy said. "Annabeth just told me some good news. I'm sorry if I got a little loud."

"We're going to spend our senior year together," Annabeth explained, "Here in New York. And after graduation—"

"College in New Rome!" Percy pumped her fist like she was blowing a truck horn. "Four years with no monsters to fight, no battles, no stupid prophecies. Just me and Annabeth, getting our degrees, hanging out at cafés, enjoying California—"

"And after that..." Annabeth hugged her best friend excitedly. "Well, Reyna and Frank said we could live in New Rome as long as we like."

"That's great," Nico said. He sounded so sincere Percy grinned at him. "I'm staying too, here at Camp Half-Blood."

"Awesome!" Percy said. It would be the first year Nico actually gets to spent in Camp Half-Blood. For a minute, Nico studied Percy. She kept smiling, too happy to care if the silence got awkward.

"So," Nico said. "Since we're going to be spending at least a year seeing each other at camp, I think I should clear the air."

Percy's smile wavered. "What do you mean?" She had senced Nico hated her for a long time, but...was he actually going to tell her to her face that he hated her?

"For a long time," Nico said, "I had a crush on you. I just wanted you to know."

Percy looked at Nico. Then at Annabeth, as if to check that she'd heard correctly. Then back at Nico. "You—"

"Yeah," Nico said. "You're a great person. But I'm over that. I'm happy for you guys."

Percy was still speechless. Of all the things she though Nico would tell her, the idea of him having a crush on her was...wow.

"You...so you mean—"

"Right."

Annabeth's eyes started to sparkle. She grinned at Nico.

"Wait. So you mean...—"

"Right," Nico said again. "But it's cool. We're cool. I mean, I see now...you're cute, but you're not my type."

"I'm not your type...wait, so—"

"See you around, Percy," Nico said. "Annabeth."

Nico and Annabeth high fived, and as the son of Hades made his way towards the son of Apollo, Percy turned to Annabeth shocked.

"What does he mean I'm not his type?" she sounded shocked and a little bit hurt, and Annabeth rolled her eyes in her direction. "I'm everybody's type!"

A small smirk started to curve its way into Annabeth's face. "I don't know. I'll say Nico likes blonde, blue eyed people more than you."

"What?" Percy asked.

Annabeth sighed exasperated, rolling her eyes again. "Forget it"

"No. I don't underst—Oh" her eyes caught a glimpse of Nico and Will entering the infirmary, saw Annabeth's smirk, and her eyes widened. "Holy shist. Nico's gay?"

"Bisexual," said Annabeth. "The term for someone that likes both girls and boys is bisexual."

For a second, a silence settled in, then, Percy crossed her arms and looked back at Annabeth.

"And what does Solace have that I don't?"

"Seriously, Jackson...what?" said Annabeth, looking at her best friend with a raised eyebrow. "Does it matter?"

Percy puffed. "Well, it does if I'm not his type but Will is! Though...Will's hot, I understand that."

Annabeth rolled her eyes again at her best friend.

* * *

><p>At the other side of Camp, Piper and Jason were cuddling in the strawberry fields. Tears silently leaked out of Piper's eyes. For hours they stood like that, without moving or talking, only getting comfort in each other.<p>

"I miss him," she admitted.

"Me, too." Jason said. "But...maybe he is...you know, alive."

But he knew better. Nico had told him he'd felt Leo's death. And as much as that hurt, there was nothing else they could do but hope. Hope that in some miracle way Leo managed to use the physician's cure.

Then, just as Jason opened his mouth to say something, a scream broke through the air, and they got up alerted, running towards where the sound had came. Up close to Half-Blood Hill, Jason saw, horrified, how a bright golden light filled the air, abducting Percy and Annabeth. Jason run towards them, but before he knew it, the golden light engulfed him, too.

* * *

><p><strong>August 5, 2002. Olympus, Empire State Building. <strong>

"Ares, I swear to the gods if you don't stop I will throw you out of your throne!" snarled Artemis.

Ares scoffed. "Yeah, I'd like to see you try!"

Artemis eyes gleamed dangerously. Hermes and Apollo quickly made bets about how Artemis would beat Ares ass. Hera was having a heated discussion with Demeter. Poseidon and Athena glared at each other. Zeus grumbled something about how stressing all of that was. And Hestia was watching everything with tiredness.

Then, a blinding golden light shone from the ceiling. The sky opened and people started to fall from it. The gods were too stunned to react for a second, but the first one to react was Apollo. He raised hurriedly from his throne, raising a hand. The people—demigods, the gods assumed—slowed down and fell gracefully to the floor.

Except that when the first girl hit the floor gracefully, the rest of the demigods fell on her. The gods looked at each other, then back at the demigods.

"G-G-Guys...get...o-off...m-me...!" gasped the girl, a beautiful young girl with black hair and bright sea green eyes. Slowly, with groans and wimps, they started to get up.

The gods counted them. Seven demigods. Four girls and three boys.

The demigods looked where they were, and there were some gasps from the ones that hadn't been there before. Only one girl seemed to be confused over something different.

"This room...it looks different," she said slowly, glancing around. She was a beautiful blonde girl with stormy grey eyes. "It's not like the one I designed..."

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" boomed Zeus, glaring down at the demigods.

They all looked at each other.

"Uh, what do you mean?" frowned the blonde guy with baby blue eyes.

"Didn't you guys brought us here?" raised an eyebrow the first girl, the one that got squished under the other demigods.

"No, we didn't." said Hestia softly.

"I asked you guys a question." grumbled Zeus, still glaring up at them.

"We didn't answered because it's kind of ridiculous," the girl answer immediately. "You know who we are, and if you guys didn't brought us here I don't know how are we here."

Some of the gods eyes darkened at the tone the demigod used.

"You should talk to us with more respect, child," said Artemis, her cold eyes washing over the girl. "We do not know who you are, nor why you are here."

The demigods shared a confused look. The blonde girl frowned even more.

"I've heard the gods forget things easily, but we saw each other, like, 5 days ago." said the same girl.

"It's not that...They actually look like they don't know us." said the big Chinese guy.

"You think they're crazy again?" asked the blonde boy. "Like what happened when we mixed...—"

"ANSWER MY QUESTION!" boomed Zeus again, this time pointing his master lightning at them. "WHO. ARE. YOU. AND. WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING. HERE?"

The rest of the gods had joined Zeus and pointed their arms at them.

"Lord Zeus, is this a joke?" asked the beautiful brunette with multicoloured eyes weakly.

"Ha!" snorted Apollo. "Like he jokes." But he had his bow arched at them too.

"Oh my gods," whispered Annabeth horrified.

They all turned to her, including the gods.

"What?" asked the dark haired girl.

"Lord Zeus, what...what year is it?"

The gods looked at each other, totally confused, but Athena seemed to catch her daughter's mind. She lowered her spear and looked at them wide eyed.

"2002," informed Hermes. "August 5."

A long silence followed. The black haired girl looked at the blonde girl for an explanation, but the other ones were not so easily convinced. The gods frowned at them.

"Is this a joke?" asked this time the beautiful African-American girl. She turned to the dark haired girl. "Do they joke?"

"Uh," she said. "Dunno."

"No, that's not possible." said the only boy that still hadn't talked. A pale dark haired guy with dark eyes. "Its 2014."

Athena held the blonde girl's eyes, but said nothing. She still didn't knew she was her daughter.

Then, just as Zeus was about to snap, the sky opened again, and a package landed on the floor with a loud sound.

"Are those...books?" said Hermes slowly.

"I think they are."

The blonde demigod moved forwards and lowered himself to the ground to check the books. He took a post it note from it, and turned back to everyone.

Before he could talk, Hera snapped her fingers. "Bring it forwards, child."

The demigod pursed his lips, maybe he didn't liked being called that, or maybe he hated Hera...Probably the last one. He strolled forwards and held the note high. It flew out of his hand and landed on Hera's hand. She took the note, cleared her throat and read,

_"Dear gods and demigods._

_Though it may be a little difficult to understand, I must tell you that I brought this very important demigods from the future. They're the most important demigods in the whole world. Please, listen to them and do not kill them. I repeat, do not kill them. They're there to read with you some books I made with the permission of Persephone Jackson and Annabeth Chase. They are about the wars. We won them all, but with a high cost. To many deaths. To many sadness. To many punishments. Please, read them all with them. And do not kill them. Everything has an explanation. Listen to them._

_Sincerely,_

_A. "_

For a stunned moment, the demigods didn't say anything. The gods were too busy thinking about what the note meant to care about them. The tone of the note denoted desperation. Whoever this A was, it was desperate.

Also, wars. As in plural? More than one?

"What the fuck is this?" blurted out Seph, "Someone just _Doctor Who_us to Olympus?"

"Something like that," said the chinese dude.

Poseidon ignored all that. Yes, he was worried about the war issue, but what he feared most was the Persephone's part. Persephone Jackson...he had a daughter named like that. She would be He looked around and saw his brother. Zeus was frowning as he read the note over and over again. Poseidon paled even more. He knew that in the second his brother found out he had a daughter he would try to kill her...

Then the gods started to talk in Ancient Greek. They were discussing if they should read the books or not. After all, it all could be a trap. Or something worse.

"Annabeth Chase," said Athena changing back to english. "That's my daughter."

"That would be me." the blonde girl said.

The gods all looked down to the demigods. Some were pale, others looked really, really confused. But they didn't looked like a treat.

"Okay," said Zeus at last. "We will do as the note say."

Some gods sighed.

"Great," said Hermes sarcastically. "Off to read some boring war books."

"Oh, they're not boring war books," said Hestia softly, inspecting closely the books. "They're on Persephone's Jackson point of view...The first five, the others are on a lot of people's perspective."

"WHAT!?" yelled the black haired girl, making them glance down at her surprised. "ON MY—"

The blonde girl, Annabeth, put her hand on the girl's mouth, wide eyed.

"P—Seph," she said, faking a smile. "You may want to reconsider your words."

Seph moved her hand away. "BUT IT'S—"

"Seph!" exclaimed Annabeth. "Can't you remember what vow the gods make?"

"What are you talking about?" snarled Seph. "Why are you calling me that? You know i hate it! AND I CAN'T CALM DOWN BECAUSE THE BOOKS ARE ON M—"

This time, the dark haired boy was the one to put his hand on her mouth. He bent closer and whispered something on her ear. After a couple of seconds, the girl seemed to calm down.

"I still don't like it," she grumbled as she moved the boy's hand away from her. "But you both are right." she crossed her arms grumpily.

"Can we continue?" asked Zeus glaring down at them.

Seph made a gesture with her hand. "Whatever."

"You know her?" asked Poseidon, looking at Seph.

"Who?"

"Persephone Jackson," he said. Everyone looked at them, and Poseidon feigned a smile. "I mean, you reacted pretty bad when they mentioned she was the protagonist of the books."

"Yes, I do know her." answered the girl in a tense voice.

The others demigods looked at themselves confusedly, but Annabeth and the boy kept whispering on their ears, and slowly, they all nodded. Seph glared at the floor.

"Let's do this shit," she grumbled, crossing her arms and marching towards the books. She opened the package and suck in breath at the book covers. They were so beautiful, and yet so horrifying for her. Horrifying because inside, in those pages, was her whole life. Her thoughts, her sins, her love. Everything was there. And it was about to be discovered by everyone.

"First," said Hermes. "We should introduce ourselves. I will start first, I'm Hermes, at your service." he bowed and smiled warmly.

"Hestia," said the little girl. "Hi, children."

They all smiled at the sweet goddess.

"And I am Apollo," said Apollo, bowing his head too in a fancy gesture. He then looked at his twin sister.

"Artemis," she said.

Seph and Annabeth wanted to say they already met, but since the Romans hadn't exactly met all of them before, they let them continue.

"I am Zeus," boomed the thunder god. "This is my wife Hera, and my son's Ares, Athena and Hephaestus."

As their name was called, they all nodded their head or grunted.

"I'm Poseidon," smiled the sea god warmly. Seph smiled right back, her sea green eyes twinkling.

"Hello beauty things, I'm Aphrodite," the beautiful goddess said, smiling down at them.

"Hi," said Demeter. "I'm Demeter."

"Dionysus," the last god said with a bored gesture.

"Very well," said Zeus. "Demigods, your turn."

They looked at each other. For an awkward moment Jason and Seph tried to introduce themselves at the same time. They looked at each other awkwardly, and then let Annabeth do it first.

"I'm Annabeth Chase," Annabeth said, bowing slightly to the gods. "Daughter of Athena."

She turned around, and nodded at Jason.

"I'm Jason Grace...son of Jupiter."

"WHAT!?"

Olympus broke into stupor, the gods looked at each other and then at the demigods. "That's not possible," said Athena. "Greeks and Romans..."

"Let's just say the future is pretty messed up," Jason said. "We are united again, Greeks and Romans."

"How?" asked Demeter, frowning worriedly at the other gods. "Last time that happened..."

"You will discover it in the books," Annabeth said. "We wont say anything. Otherwise that would be spoilers."

Apollo and Hermes complained.

"Let's continue," ordered Zeus, feeling a headache coming on.

The beautiful brunette with sparkling multicoloured eyes smiled and walked forwards, bowing before the gods. "My name is Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

Aphrodite smiled and clapped her hands excitedly. "Hi! Hi, Darling!"

Piper smiled at her a bit flustered by all the stares of the gods, and walked towards the others. The next that moved forwards was the bulky chinese guy.

"Hi," he said slowly. "I'm Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

The war god images flickered to his roman form for a second, but he turned back to Greek again. He grunted at his son.

"Hazel Levesque," said the beautiful African-American girl walking forwards. "Daughter of Pluto."

"Oh," some muttered.

"I guess we have to call Hades here," Zeus said slowly.

Some of them sighed. "Yeah, whatever."

"Hermes!," called Zeus. "Go collect Hades, now."

The winged god sighed rolling his eyes, but disappeared in a golden light.

"This will only take some seconds," assured Hestia politely at them.

The demigods smiled.

"S' okay," Seph said coming forwards. "I'm P—" Annabeth cleared her throat loudly, and Seph rolled her eyes. "I'm Seph."

"Daughter of...?" asked Apollo, raising his eyebrows.

"You'll discover who I am soon," Seph said.

"Ohhh, mysterious." said Hermes' voice from the door. He was standing there with Hades at his side. "Not even a last name?"

"Nope," she smiled. "Soon you'll know."

"Mysterious," repeated Hermes, this time smiling in a charming way. "So, we're here. I just filled Uncle H here in."

"Charming," said Hades, strolling forwards until he was standing alongside his fellow Olympians. "I'm summoned from my house, from my job to read books. Fantastic."

The last boy moved forwards. "I'm Nico, Nico di Angelo."

Hades stopped dead on his tracks. He turned around and looked at his son. "Nico?"

"Hello...father,"

A long silence followed, then, Zeus raised himself shouting a 'WHAT!?' and reaching for his bolt.

"Don't you dare," snarled Hades. "I didn't broke the oath."

"Oh, I'm sure you didn't," said Poseidon sarcastically, but he wasn't reaching for his trident, since that would be hypocrite of him, considering they were about to read books about her daughter.

"I did not broke the curse, unless you, brother," Hades said, looking at Zeus. "I trapped him in the Lotus Hotel years ago—"

"He's the boy?" boomed Zeus. "I told you to kill him!"

"Would you have killed him, being the case the other way? Could have you killed your own son?" snarled Hades.

Silence.

"That's what I thought. Now, Nico...my boy, where is Bianca?" he asked looking around. "Why isn't she here too? Is she still at Lotus?" his eyes found Hazel. "And what...what is she doing here?"

"You'll found out soon in the books." said Seph, hating the way Nico's eyes seemed to sadden themselves again.

"She's a Roman." Hades said.

"The future's pretty messed up," said Nico, copying Jason's words.

"We are united now," smiled Jason, hugging Piper by the shoulders.

"Okay," said Hades slowly.

"So, when do we begin?" clapped her hands Aphrodite.

Athena crunched down at human stature, and walked towards the pile of books. She took out the first one, and read the cover. "Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The Lightning Thief."

Said girl sighed. "Let's do it."


	2. How do you accidentaly vaporize someone?

**_Hello, guys! Thank you for reading the story and you know, all that stuff :) _**

**_Thank you to everyone that reviewed it. For the ones that asked with whom Percy will end, I will only say: You'll found out soon ;) _**

**_Thank you again for the support! Love you guys!_**

* * *

><p>The gods shrunk themselves to human stature, and sat on mini-thrones. The demigods were given fluffy couches where they sat and relaxed for a second. The only one that didn't looked relaxed or excited was Seph. She was grumpily looking down at her feet as she crossed her arms. At her side, Annabeth sighed and tried to tell her it would be okay.<p>

Athena moved to the first chapter, and looked at them all. "Everybody ready?" There were some murmurs of approval.

"No," whispered Seph.

Annabeth gave her a soft squeez.

**Chapter 1 I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER. **

"How do you accidentally vaporise someone?" raised an eyebrow Frank, turning back to Seph.

"When you do it accidentally," she shrugged.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

The demigods looked at Seph, who evaded their eyes. She hadn't wanted to be one, back there, but now? Even when it was hard, and scary, and shitty, it was her life. And she won't change it for nothing.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"OMG! Percy giving advice! Everybody run!" yelled Jason.

"Hey!" laughed Seph, to then notice everybody looked at her when she said that. "Percy's not that bad! She's...good at advice."

"Yeah, right!" giggled Piper.

The gods looked at Athena, signaling her to read. As the gods looked away, Seph stuck out her tongue at the daughter of Aphrodite.

**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

The gods sighed.

"As good as it sounds, it doesn't work like that." said Demeter.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

The gods looked to the floor in rememberal to all of their sons/daughter who had died heroically.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, **

"Why would anyone believe that?" frowned Apollo.

"It's probably a famous book in the future among humans," said Hermes, looking towards Athena and trying to read the back of the book.

**great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Actually...that's a good advice." said Nico slowly. "Weird."

"Hey," repeated Seph, but she was smiling. Nico was better than before, smiling and joking. Maybe Will was starting to heal him. "I—She always gives good advice."

"Sure she does." smirked Annabeth.

"Watch it, Wise Girl."

**Don't say I didn't warn you. My name is Percy Jackson.**

"We couldn't have imagined it." said Apollo sarcastically, signaling to the books covers, where every title had the name on.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York**.

Poseidon frowned.

"Troubled kids?"

No one glanced his way, but he bit his tongue. He shouldn't be showing his curiousity about the girl. If he does they will discover him.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"YES!" all the demigods said at once.

Seph shrugged internally. She _was_ a troubled girl, after all.

"Yes," said Hera, causing everyone to look at her. "All half-bloods are troubled."

Some of the gods glared at her, but she didn't cared.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

Some snickered.

"Even she admits it." smiled Hazel.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, **

Poseidon frowned worriedly. Her daughter, at the short age of twelve, already considered her life miserable?

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, **

"Urgh, that doesn't sound so good." said Demeter.

"It wasn't," said Seph before she could realize it. No one seemed to notice her slip, but Poseidon and Hermes glanced at her.

**heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds fun." Athena smiled.

Annabeth nodded her head.

"Sounds like _tortur_e," corrected Poseidon.

They glared at each other for some seconds before the goddess returned to the lecture.

**I know. It sounds like torture. **

Some giggled. Some gods looked at Poseidon from the corner of their eyes. Athena sighed rolling her eyes.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. **

The demigods smiled thinking about Chiron.

"Sounds like Chiron," said Hephaestus.

"Yeah, it was him." said Annabeth. "He always uses that name when he goes undercover to schools."

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.**

"My favourite kind of teachers," grinned Apollo.

"Mine too." said Hermes.

Athena rolled her eyes again. "May I continue?"

"Sure thing, sis."

**He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

Athena shuddered. "She slept at class?"

"She's dyslexic, of course she did."

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. **

**Boy, was I wrong.**

The demigods smiled despite Seph's sighs. She seemed to have the worst luck ever, even for a demigod.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, **

"Nice place," grinned Ares. He liked everything that had to be with war.

**I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

The room erupted into laughter. Seph blushed and tried to laugh with them.

"Oh man! How I wish I knew what she was aiming for." said Hermes, blinking tears of laughter.

When Frank and Jason looked to Seph, she shrugged. She had forgotten about it, it had happened years ago.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. **

The room erupted into laugher again.

"Oh, man!" said Apollo laughing. "I want to meet Percy."

Hermes nodded in agreement. He tried to stop laughing, but as he imagined the whole shark tank full of scared kids and a surprised Percy, he cracked up again. Poseidon smiled softly. The sharks probably were happy to see Percy.

"May I continue?" sighed Athena, looking at the laughing gods.

"Uh, sure...continue, Athena." said Ares, after he stopped laughing.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Nooooo!" howled Apollo, making them all jump.

"We want to hear more!" yelled Hermes.

"Don't yell!" yelled Hera. "Athena! Read."

Seph looked at them both. "Percy told me some of her stories; I can tell you later if you want."

Both gods nodded eagerly.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"So, of course, something bad probably happened," Nico smirked.

"Duh," said Annabeth, "This is Percy we're talking about."

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

"Grover Underwood?" asked Jason.

Seph smiled and nodded. "Yes. He's my—uh, Percy's best friend."

Athena again noticed her slip and eyed the young demigod. The other gods didn't seem to notice, though.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Annabeth snorted. "Way to blow his cover."

"What cover?" asked Apollo.

"He's a satyr." Piper explained.

Dionysus raised his eyes from his wine magazine and looked at the book. Zeus, on the other hand, grew angrier. "Isn't that the satyr that got my daughter killed?"

A long silence broke the air. Everyone turned to look at Hera. She hated when anyone mentioned Zeus' little slip with Beryl Grace. She was nearly glowing angrily. Zeus shut up immediately.

"Yes. He was," Seph said, her voice sounding defensive. "But he's a good guardian,—"

"What happened with Thalia wasn't his fault." Annabeth nodded. "I was there. Thalia sacrificed herself for us."

"Wait, what?" said Jason, looking at Annabeth. "When did Thalia sacrificed herself?"

"Spoilers," called Seph in a singsong voice. "Lady Athena, please read."

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-**

"WHAT!?" jumped Poseidon, his eyes wide in shock and angry. "HE DID WHAT!?"

Everyone looked at him. Athena grew even more suspicious when Seph looked at him with a small smile. Athena was nearly sure Poseidon had something to do with Persephone Jackson. He was acting too much to the things that happened in the book. And Seph definitely was hiding something.

"Would you let me continue, Barnacle Beard?" said Athena.

**by in-school suspension **

"Oh," said Poseidon.

Zeus and Hades glanced at each other and then back at Poseidon. He didn't...break the oath too, did he?

**if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Nice first words," said Ares.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that the first words we hear her say are those?"

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Well, I do too, but not on my hair." Apollo said, running his hands on his golden locks protectively. Aphrodite nodded in agreement, a big mirror floating in front of her as she looked over and over again at her reflection.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

Ares complained. "C'mon! Fight her!"

"Would she hit another girl?" Artemis frowned, looking at the demigods.

"She will if anyone treats her friends bad." Seph said, a little too quickly.

Athena looked at her again.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. **

"Me too," said Ares, looking eager to hear about a fight.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

Poseidon moved worriedly on his seat. Something both Zeus and Hades noticed. They narrowed their eyes.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer, child." Artemis said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. **

Some sighed. "Pretty young then."

"That's sad." said Aphrodite.

The demigods looked at each other.

**He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Why?" frowned Athena, interrupting herself. "She wanted to learn."

"She was evil." was all that Seph said.

Poseidon pursed his lips, not liking that.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

Ares smirked. That teacher sounded pretty rad.

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. **

Annabeth snorted. "She probably caused that mental breakdown."

Seph whispered back. "No, we did."

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. **

"No," said Seph smirking. "That's Nico."

"Watch it, P—Seph." warned Nico.

"No, wait, wait, it's Death Boy now," smirked Jason.

Seph pursed her lips. "I still don't know what Solace have that I don't."

"Seriously, Seph, let it go." said Annabeth rolling her eyes.

"Finished?" raised an eyebrow Athena.

"Yeah, carry on, Lady A." said Seph.

Athena gave her a glare.

"_Athena_. Lady Athena." Seph corrected quickly.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, **

Hades frowned then. He knew someone who was just like that.

**and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"A MONTH!?" exclaimed Hermes.

"That's too much!" said Apollo, wide eyed too.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, **

"Holy shist!" said Apollo.

"Until midnight?" said Hermes.

"That woman's a monster!" they said in sync.

"Yes, she was." whispered Seph darkly.

**I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Some groaned.

"Amazing," muttered Poseidon. "There's a monster after her."

"Why do you care?" asked Zeus, looking at him seriously.

Poseidon gulped, but replied indifferently. "She's a demigod. Could be our niece or—"

"Daughter?" said Hades innocently. "Could be your daughter, too."

"She's not!" said Poseidon, but he did it too fast.

"Poseidon, do you want to say something?" asked Zeus.

Silence.

"Consider it your chance. Anything you have to say, say it now." warned Zeus. "Now you will be forgiven. Later, you won't."

Poseidon didn't say anything, and Seph glanced down, feeling a little hurt.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, **

"Childish," whispered Frank.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

Some snickers cut the air.

"Of course it did." smirked Hermes.

Seph blushed.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story**.

**"Ms. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red.**

"Awww," snickered Jason, "a blushing Percy is always so cute."

"Shut up." grumbled Seph.

**I said, "No, sir."**

The demigods gasped dramatically.

"Percy being respectful to someone?"

"Run for your lives! The world's ending!"

Seph rolled her eyes. "Idiots."

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" **

The gods groaned.

"It had to be that one," sighed Demeter, a green tint on her cheeks.

"Why is it always that one?" Hestia sighed

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..." **

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD!?" boomed Zeus. "GOD!? KING GOD!?" He thundered, his hands reaching for his master bolt. "I WILL KILL THAT GIRL FOR EVEN IMPLYING IT."

Before Poseidon could jump to his daughter's rescue, Athena did. "My lord, calm down," she said. "She's just a kid." Seph was surprised to hear Athena defending her. _Well_, defending _Percy. _

"I'm sure Chiron will correct her." added Poseidon.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See?"

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

Poseidon and Hades grumbled. "Mother always loved you more."

"Of course she did." smirked Zeus.

Hestia rolled her eyes.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Well, try being there!" snapped Demeter.

"_Eww _doesn't even begin to describe how horrible it was." said Hera.

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won**."

"You summarized the most important war of all time into a sentence." said Annabeth, too stunned to even realize she said it louder than a whisper.

"Percy did, yeah." Seph said, giving Annabeth a nudge. "She's just that awesome."

**Some snickers from the group. **

"Why do they laugh? She is correct." Frank and Hephaestus frowned.

The Roman looked at the god surprised, but smiled politely.

"Humans are weird just like that." shrugged Seph.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"Maybe it will," smirked Hermes.

**"And why, Ms. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" sang Apollo.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

The smile disappeared from the gods' face. He seemed horrified he said the same thing a satyr said.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"Cute," said Hermes sarcastically.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"More like horse ears," Nico said.

Some snickered.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Ms. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. **

Piper and Hazel shuddered. "Uh, that must've been horrible."

"It was." said Hades darkly.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. **

"On a happy note?"

"How is that a happy note?"

"I'm hungry." said Apollo.

"Hi, hungry, I'm Seph." smirked said girl.

Apollo stuck his tongue out at her in a childish way.

**Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?" The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Guys are doofuses." said Artemis.

"Hey!" yelled all the male gods.

"Yes they are," agreed Seph.

"Hey!" the male demigods yelled.

Artemis smiled at the girl.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Ms. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"They have." said Athena. "Percy's really perceptive."

"She is," smiled Annabeth, "and she's really smart, but sometimes she doesn't show it. It's like she wants everybody to think she's dumb when she's not."

Seph blushed as a couple of her friends nodded, too.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for your own good, sweetie." said Poseidon.

Again, Zeus and Hades looked at him, but he didn't seem to realize his mistake.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"That actually sounds cool," said Hermes.

"It was," smiled Seph.

Again, Athena looked at the girl, narrowing her eyes.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

Athena gasped loudly. Seph blushed when Annabeth looked at her. Athena actually looked horrified. "Poor child."

**No. He didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Demigod's curse," Seph sighed.

"Is it that bad?" asked Demeter worriedly.

"Worse." the demigods all answered in sync.

Some gods looked guilty for making their children so troubled.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was," said Annabeth.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was** **a hurricane blowing in.**

"Damn, dad, what got your panties in a twist?"

"Apollo," warned Zeus. "Shut up."

"No, seriously, why are you so mad?"

"How am I supposed to know? It hasn't happened yet."

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

Artemis rolled her eyes.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, **

Some curious eyes looked at Hermes, who was toying with a necklace that looked exactly like one Seph had...

"Hey! That's mine!" Seph said.

"Oops," Hermes said, giving an innocent grin that didn't fooled anyone, "is it?"

"Yes. Give it back." crossed her arms Seph. "It's my mothers."

"Aha! So your mother's mortal. Your daddy's the one who's immortal." Hermes said, rising from his throne and giving Seph her necklace back.

"How did you do that?" she asked, putting it back on her long delicate neck, "you didn't even come near me."

"God of thief," said Hermes, signalling to himself. "Now, don't change the conversation. Am I right?"

Everybody was watching them now. "Yeah," she admitted. "My dad's immortal."

"Please, tell me it's not me," said Apollo suddenly.

Seph raised her eyebrow to him, as did some others.

"I mean, I can't date my daughter, can I?" he smirked.

Seph blushed, but rolled her eyes. "Easy there, Golden Boy. I'm not dating you."

"Yet," he smirked.

"Hey!" called Hermes. "She's not going to date you. She's going to date me. Right, sweetheart?"

Seph couldn't be more red. "What?"

Apollo and Hermes laughed.

"Were just messing with you, don't worry," said Hermes softly.

"Though, it would be awesome if we could date." smirked Apollo, winking at the girl.

"Yeah," said Hermes, smirking suggestively at the girl.

Seph was flustered, because in her time Apollo and Hermes didn't flirt with her like that. Hermes was more fatherly towards her, and Apollo was simply friendly. Here, both of them were flirting with her. She didn't know what to feel.

"Apollo, Hermes, leave her alone." said Artemis.

"Thank you," Seph said slowly. "Lady Athena, you may continue now."

**and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school. The school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Oh, Percy..." sighed Poseidon.

"Stop that right now!" yelled Zeus, rising up. "Admit already your relationship with the girl!"

"OKAY!" yelled Poseidon, rising from his throne too. "She's my daughter! I broke the oath too! Happy?!"

"Yes!" Zeus yelled. "Now I can go and kill her!"

"DON'T YOU EVEN DARE!" the ground shook dramatically. And Zeus, being the drama queen he is, conjured some storms that only worsened the situation. Zeus and Poseidon launched into a fight. The king god tried to move away to go to Sally Jackson's house and kill baby Percy, Poseidon tried to block him and stop him.

"WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL MY DAUGHTER!? I NEVER TRIED TO HURT THALIA!"

Zeus froze, a murderous look on his eyes. Thalia was a delicate subject, and Poseidon knew it.

"I want to kill her because she's your daughter," was all Zeus said as he raised his master bolt towards his brother. But before anyone else could move, Apollo made that whistling sound Nico saw his son Will do.

They all winced, the demigods fell to the floor, their hands on their ears.

"STOP!" Apollo yelled. "Can't you see you're hurting them?"

Both gods looked down, and saw Jason on the floor, his hair raised as he was impaled with a lightning, Seph was trying to block Annabeth from being hurt with the pieces of architecture that were falling due to the earthquake Poseidon caused. Frank protected Hazel as Nico winced holding his bloody hands away from his bleeding ears. Piper was at Jason's side trying to see if he was hurt.

"Stop!" yelled Apollo again. "Father. Don't be an hypocrite! You were the first to broke the oath. Uncle P, calm down! No one is going to hurt your daughter. Just...stop!"

No one had ever seen Apollo so serious before, so they actually listened to him and stopped fighting.

"You dare to talk to me like that in front of all theses people?" Zeus voice was dangerously slow.

"Yes. I do," Apollo said, standing in front of his father. He was a couple of inches taller than Zeus. "because I'm tired of hypocrisy and your fights and your reclaims. If you don't recall well, the note clearly said that we can't kill any of these demigods. Percy may not be here, but she's the main character of the books. You can't go in killing her. Now. Sit back. Stop sulking and let's get down to read again."

With shock, everybody watched as Zeus grumbled a "_We will talk later, Apollo_." and sat down on his throne grumpily.

Apollo turned around and everybody saw how he made a surprised face and mock wiped his head. He stood up to his father, but he had been scared of him too. Seph felt a twinkle of satisfaction and greatness for the god. He stood up to her, even when he only knew her for, like, four or five pages. He really was a great god, a great cousin.

Athena cleared her throat, and read.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius." **

"Wisest thing you'd ever said." Jason whispered, still confused and scared about what had just happened. And, he had an incoming headache thanks to that lightning.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

The room erupted into laugher, which seemed to be what was needed to break the tension after Poseidon's and Zeus' fight.

"Oh, Grover," sighed Annabeth.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment**,

Poseidon smiled softly, thinking about the beautiful Sally Jackson.

**only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. **

"Awww," cooed the goddesses. "How cute!"

Seph blushed.

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years **

Some shuddered. "That's horrible."

Seph nodded silently. It had been horrible.

**and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"I want one!" said Hermes, looking to Hephaestus, who rolled his eyes but took it as a challenge. He definitely w_ould _make him one.

"I can help you into needing one" asked Artemis, giving Hermes a murderous look, fetching her fingers.

"N-No, it's okay, I don't want a wheelchair anymore."

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Apollo, Ares and Hermes, the womanizers, all made faces at that.

"Attractive." said Hermes sarcastically.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"A wave," said Jason. "Why do you—uh, Percy—always compare things to the ocean?"

"I—She's the daughter of Poseidon," Seph said. "It's in her."

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

Frowns broke into some faces.

"Materialized?"

"I hope that a metaphor."

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-" **

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

Zeus clenched his fist together. _Definitely _Poseidon's daughter. Oh, how he _hate_d those little spawns.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. **

"The only thing that is always sure on Percy's life."

Seph sighed. It was true.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

Hades wanted to disappear on his throne. He knew who that was now, and when Poseidon founds out...there will be blood.

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." **

"No!" yelled Hermes dramatically. "No! No! No! Never, ever, guess your punishment! It will only make it worse!"

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Of course it wasn't!" said Hermes.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

Annabeth smiled. "That's Grover."

Seph smiled too.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." **

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now." **

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. **

"I want to smack her!" said Piper.

"Me, too."

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

Every demigod that had been under it shuddered.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

Poseidon groaned. Something bad was going to happen. He knew it.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I wouldn't be so sure." Hermes said.

**I wasn't so sure.**

He smiled softly, but he was worried too.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel**.

"Must be a good novel then," said Hazel.

"WHY ISN'T HE NOTICING WHAT IS HAPPENING!? IS HIS JOB TO DO SO."

"Gee, Uncle P, calm down or you'll have a seizure. I'm sure Percy will be all right, after all, there still are four more books in her point of view."

Poseidon ignored that.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Of course it wasn't," said Piper worriedly.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty**.

"Great," someone said sarcastically.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Poseidon whimpered softly.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"She probably wanted to." Hades whispered.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. **

"Percy doing the safe thing?" said Nico slowly. "Wow. That's new."

**I said, "Yes, ma'am." **

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

Poseidon whimpered again. This time, the demigods that didn't know about that incident, nearly everyone but Annabeth, we're getting really worried now.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Oh, Percy..." said Jason worriedly. "I think this one is going to."

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"I think that phrase describes Percy's life." said Nico.

"Watch it, Death Boy."

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

Despite the situation, some people laughed.

"I'm liking this Percy more and more," Ares said.

Seph nearly threw up.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

They all laughed again. Athena and Annabeth rolled their eyes.

"**Well?" she demanded. **

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. **

"Don't you say," whispered Hera sarcastically.

**She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A FURY!" yelled Poseidon, turning to Hades. "YOU SEND A FURY FOR MY DAUGHTER!"

Hades cowered in his throne. "I don't know...it hasn't happened yet..."

"Shut up," said Athena, "I'm tired of reading, let me finish."

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How?"

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"A pen!" yelled Ares. "What is she going to do with a pen? Write her last words?"

Seph smirked. "You'll see."

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

Everyone cached their breaths. It was incredibly how they all seemed to care about Percy even when they still didn't knew her. That was beautiful to watch.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—**

"Oh," said Ares.

**Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Baby," rolled his eyes Ares, clasping his hands excitedly, looking forwards to a good fight.

"She was twelve, Ares, she was not a baby, she was scared."

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"She should stop with the 'honey' already!"

**And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How is that the thing that came naturally?" raised her eyebrows Aphrodite.

"Demigods thing."

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

A stunned silence followed. Even Athena stopped reading. Poseidon felt as if he was the happiest god alive. His daughter survived that. She did. Oh, thank goodness, she survived.

"You...killed...a fury...on...your...first...fight?"

"Yes I did," smirked Seph.

"Percy Jackson, you are amazing."

She giggled. "I know."

Athena's eyes widened, as she was the only one that hear them. That girl _was_ Percy. As she eyes the heroine, she heard the other gods murmuring about how incredible it was that a little girl in her first attempt and her first time using a sword had killed a fury. Even Hades himself was shocked.

"Uh, let's...continue..." said Athena, still looking at Seph.

**I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Everybody rolled their eyes.

"Seriously?"

**Had I imagined the whole thing? **

"No, you didn't," said Apollo in a singsong voice.

**I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" nearly everyone said.

**I said, "Who?" **

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

"Oh! Right, The Mist."

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Yeah, Grover's a terrible liar." everyone that knew him said.

**"Not funny, Grover," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Ms. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Now, that's how you lie," said Hermes.

"That's the end of the chapter," said Athena. "who wants to read now?"


	3. Do you think those socks will fit me?

**Saya. Bloodplus**: Me alegra mucho te haya gustado! No estas muy lejos de la verdad. Aunque siendo sincera, Percy podría terminar con cualquiera ;) Actualizo Pronto! Besos.

**Rebfan90:** Glad you liked it! :)

**Anais sagrera**: Glad you liked the story. Soon it will be known who holds Percy's heart.

**Mili Maddox Dixon**: Pronto sabras con quien! Puede ser con cualquiera;)

**Squidney**: Glad you liked it! I'll update soon!

**Dianastyles11**: quien dijo que no con Apollo? Podría ser con cualquiera ;)

* * *

><p>"Wait a moment," said Annabeth. "We have to talk in private for a second. Guys, come on."<p>

"What?" asked Zeus frowning.

"It will only take a second, I promise."

The god sighed. "Very well. Go on."

The demigods expected Annabeth to go with Seph, but she signaled to them all to follow her too. The demigods followed her. They passed long corridors full of lights so bright it hurt their eyes. A big garden full of beautiful plants and flowers. And then a small room with some couches and tables. They settled there.

Seph though she saw a big black shadow behind them, but when she turned to see what it was, there was nothing there, so she ignored it.

"What is it, Annie?" asked Frank.

"What are you doing?" asked Annabeth, turning to Seph.

She made a confused face. "What?"

"The secret is already known, Poseidon broke the oath too, so why are you still lying about who you are?"

The rest of them turned to the daughter of Poseidon, curiosity written all over their faces. "Yes. Actually, why?" said Hazel.

"You guys wouldn't understand." Seph said slowly. She glanced around in exasperation. Of all the things they could ask her, it had to be that.

"Try us," Piper said, smiling encouragingly.

"I'm smart," said Annabeth crossing her arms. "I think I may understand you."

Seph sighed and looked up to the beautiful open sealing. The constellations looked so beautiful. The daughter of Poseidon searched for Zoë's one, but then she remembered it still wasn't created here. "I...It's not easy okay?" she said. "Reading these books..." She stopped for a second, collecting her thoughts. Trying to find the right words to describe what she wanted to say. "They're reading my thoughts, my secrets, my life..." The demigods shared a look. "My whole life is there, on their hands. And for once...they seem to like me. They like Percy Jackson...I don't want them to know I'm her. I..."

"You don't want to be judged." Nico nodded. "I understand."

And he did, better than anyone.

"I'm sure they'll start acting different once they know Percy is with them. I don't want that. I want to know, for once, what they really think of Me." she admitted.

"And that's okay," said Jason. "We understand."

"You do?"

"Yes. It's your decision," said Annabeth. "But are you sure it's for the best?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think they'll get...I don't know, mad at you for hiding it?" said Hazel slowly.

Seph blinked. "I don't know...?"

Frank jumped suddenly, looking alarmed.

"What?" asked Hazel worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Something touched me," he said. "Something's here."

"I felt it too," Jason admitted.

"We shouldn't be here." Piper said darkly, looking around. "This is gods ground. We don't know what can be here."

"I actually know," Annabeth said. "I re-designed it. It's just a bonding-time room..." A slow growing sound stopped her. Jason withdrew his sword, and Frank aimed his bow.

"No," said Seph, raising a hand. "Let's just...go."

"Percy..." said Nico.

"We shouldn't be here," she insisted. "Let's just go."

"Why? Shouldn't we fight this thing...?"

"Whatever it is." added Hazel, trying to see what was hidden in the dark.

"Leave it like that," she insisted. "I don't want to fight."

"Let's just go," nodded Piper. "It will do us no good to wait and see what it is..." Reluctantly, Jason and Frank lowered their weapons.

"Okay..."

Back in the Throne Room, the gods were having a discussion in Ancient Greece. All the demigods could understand was the name Persephone, and something that sounded like 'father'. Jason cleared his throat softly, and the gods stopped.

They all looked down at them, and then they returned to human heigh. Aphrodite had tears on her eyes, and she huffed turning to her throne as Ares tried to rectify himself. Poseidon and Athena looked as if they were about to start WW3 against each other. Hades and Demeter were discussing about Persephone. And the rest of the gods looked bored. Hermes was reading something on his caduceus, Apollo had his earphones on, Dionysus was taking a nap, and Hephaestus was looking glumly at Ares. You know, the typical day with the gods.

"Now that you guys are back," said Zeus, the first to talk after the awkward silence that followed. "Come on, sit down."

"We were just talking...—"started Apollo.

"We don't need to give them an explanation," interrupted Hera. "Let's get back to reading."

Apollo glared daggers at his stepmother, and sat back on his throne. The demigods also sat down, and this time Frank took the book.

"May I?"

After nods, he opened it in the right chapter, and started to read.

"**Chapter 2 THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

The gods all paled. "Please, tell me it's not..." Poseidon couldn't finish.

The demigods frowned. "What?"

The gods shared a look. They just hoped they were wrong. "Nothing...let's just...read."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. **

"Poor girl," said Hermes.

"Wait, how old is Percy again?" asked Apollo.

"In the book she's 12." Athena said.

"No. Not in the book, in real life."

"She's..." Jason glanced at Seph. "17...?"

The god nodded. "Then she's alive. It's not...you know, _them._" The rest of the gods let out huffs of breath they didn't know they were holding.

The demigods shared confused looks.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"Oh, the Mist!" sighed Apollo. "The sweet Mist."

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Percy is a psycho," Nico said.

"Watch it, di Angelo," Seph warned, making the gods wonder how close Seph and Percy were, since every time someone said something about Percy she corrected them.

"You should have heard her when you said she wasn't your type anymore," Annabeth snickered. "She was so offended."

"Though I can understand," Piper said. "Will's so hot."

"Shut up, McLean." Nico said, a blush making his way onto his pale cheeks.

"Percy's hotter," Seph said, making them all roll their eyes.

"She is?" perked up Hermes. "How is she, physically?"

The demigods froze. Slowly, they all looked at Seph, something the gods did not miss.

"What?" asked Aphrodite. "Is she ugly?"

Seph raised an eyebrow at her friends when they didn't say anything.

"She's beautiful," said Hazel. "First time I saw her, I thought she was a roman goddess."

Seph blushed.

The gods whistled.

"Damn, then she's pretty hot." Apollo said.

Poseidon cleared his throat, and they decided to let the subject drop. Nobody wanted to get hit by the powerful god.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

"Almost," Hermes said.

"I bet it's Grover's fault," Frank said.

**Almost. **

**But Grover couldn't fool me. **

"Knew it!"

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. **

"No, no, no, never hesitate when lying," Hermes sighed.

**But I knew he was lying. Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum**.

"No shit, Sherlock," rolled her eyes Artemis.

"Is it me, or is Artemis really rude today?" Seph frowned, whispering into Annabeth's ear.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

Poseidon frowned worriedly.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

Some looked at Zeus and Poseidon. It looked like it was a very dangerous problem between them.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. **

Athena gasped.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

They all started laughing.

"But what does it mean?" asked Seph.

"Look at Dionysus," Hermes said.

She did. The wine god was fast asleep in his throne.

"_That'_s an old sot."

The laughter increased.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick. I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Stepfather?" blinked Poseidon. "Sally got married?"

"Yeah..." Seph said slowly.

The Sea god's face looked hurt for a second, but then he just smiled and nodded softly. "Is she happy?"

"Spoilers," Seph said.

They all groaned.

**And yet...there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. **

Seph and Annabeth instantly though about Thalia, and smiled.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Awww, that's so cute."

Seph blushed. "Shut up."

"Please don't tell me my daughter is dating a satyr." said Poseidon horrified.

"NO!" yelled Seph, making people jump. "Ew, no, they're just best friends."

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

Athena sighed. _Well, at least she studied for one class. _

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one- eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

The gods winced. "Is it that bad?"

"_Worse_."

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. **

"Easy," said Hades. "Chiron is the centaur that trains demigods and Charon's the one that transport them to my realm when they die."

"Okay, that sounded a bit creepy."

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Piper felt her heart clench in remembrance of the time Leo said he felt something similar.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

"Maybe that's why you're failing," said Athena.

"Owl head, you're talking to a book."

"Shut up."

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Awwww how cutie," Apollo said. "She wasn't to impress her favorite teacher."

"Awww, bless her," smirked Hermes.

Seph blushed, which made Athena frown. She was going to get caught if she didn't stopped blushing and complaining every time someone said something about her.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, **

Nico snorted.

"That time was necessary," Seph whispered, referring to the time she spied on the Huntress of Artemis so she could know what their plan was.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Good point," Hephaestus said.

"I would definitely lose," Hermes said, Apollo nodding alongside.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing her," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the girl to mature more."**

At that, the demigods all burst into laughter.

"Percy, mature!?" laughed Annaneth.

"Oh, gods, that's something I never thought about, Percy and mature in the same sentence." snorted Frank.

"Oh, hush," Seph said. "Frank, Read."

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"What deadline?"

"Spoilers,"

**"Will have to be resolved without her, Grover. Let her enjoy her ignorance while she still can."**

**"Sir, she saw her... ."**

**"Her imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince her of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." **

Zeus grumbled something about stupid satyrs.

**Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"No, no, no, no, no!" Hermes groaned. "Now your cover is blown!"

"Talking to a book," Seph said in a singsong voice.

"Fuck you," Hermes replied in the same way.

They all laughed, including Seph. She never imagined Hermes saying that, he seemed so mature in her time line...

**Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Yes!" Hermes sighed. "Never leave any evidence of your presence behind."

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"He was in his centaur form!" Aphrodite said, surprising a few. She didn't seem like she was actually listening to it. "What if someone saw him?"

"The Mist."

"Oh, right."

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

"What happened in the Winter Solstice!?"

"Spoilers."

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." **

**"Don't remind me." The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. **

Hermes nodded in approval.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired." I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"Isn't going to work," Artemis said. "Satyrs are empaths."

"What's that?" asked Ares.

Some rolled their eyes. "It means they can feel other people's emotions."

"Oh."

**and started getting ready for bed.**

"Wait...my daughter slept in a boys dorm!?" yelled Poseidon, looking scandalized.

"Well..." Seph said. "It's a long story I'm sure Percy will gladly told you...if she came here."

"Yes," Hera said. "If she's so important why isn't she here?"

Nobody answered. Frank hurriedly started to read again.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Aren't you always?" sighed Annabeth.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, **

"THREE OURS!" exclaimed Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Jason and Frank.

"Holy Shist!"

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"Oh, no...She's going to take it in a bad way," Nico said.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I want to smack that girl." Piper said.

"Me, too."

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"Baby," snorted Ares.

Poseidon gave him a warning glance, and he shut up.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"Great pep talk, Chiron." said Apollo sarcastically.

"He's good at many things, but pep talk isn't one of them," Hestia said softly.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

"Drama queen," sang Jason.

"_Bro_, shut up." Seph said.

"Make me_, Bro_."

"Guys," chided Annabeth. "Let Frank read."

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

The demigods snorted, and the gods narrowed their eyes.

"Do we look like nobodies?" boomed Zeus.

"Again, talking to a book." Seph whispered.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer **

"At least they're nice..."

**and I told them I was going back to the city. What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed**.

"...or maybe not."

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"What a coincidence!" Apollo said sarcastically.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Some snorted.

"You probably scared him to death."

"Again, talking to a book..."

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"NO!" whinnied Hermes. "Never confess!"

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"Oh, you know, not much," snorted Hazel.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"Gods, he's a really bad liar." Apollo said.

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." **

Apollo smiled.

**His ears turned pink. From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer." **

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood, Keeper_**

**_Half-Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York (800) 009-0009_**

"Why is it written like that?" Demeter frowned.

They all glanced at Dionysus, but he was snoring loudly. Aphrodite crunched her nose at him.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um...summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Rude." chided Hera.

Seph clenched her fists. She seriously _hated_ her.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

Hera nodded.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

Some smiled.

"Percy seems really loyal." Hestia said.

"She is."

"That's actually her fatal flaw." said Annabeth.

Poseidon frowned worriedly.

s**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs**.

Aphrodite and Apollo gagged.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. **

"Why do I have a bad feeling of this?"

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"Oh, shit," Apollo muttered. "Please no..."

"What?" asked Piper, "Something's wrong?"

But she was ignored.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Shit, shit, shit!" Poseidon said, startling them all.

What most surprised and warmed Seph's heart was to see the gods and demigods alike worried about her.

"Oh, no," Frank said. "Please tell me those aren't..."

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Electric blue...but that's not Percy's color..."

Annabeth, Seph and Nico lowered their eyes to the floor.

"It wasn't hers...you know, thingy."

The gods relaxed for a second.

"Then why is she seeing all that?" asked Poseidon, clearly worried about his daughter.

"It needed to be seen," was all Seph replied.

"But whose life is it?"

"Spoilers."

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Poseidon whimpered again. He now knew it wasn't her life at risk, but he didn't like the fates watching her.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, Percy," Hephaestus said.

"Not funny at all," added Hades.

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

"Hmmm"

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

Everyone but Seph catch their breaths.

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Just listen to him, Persephone!"

"Did he just call me Persephone?" blinked Seph, looking at Annabeth, but she was too deep in the lecture to hear her. "He never calls me that."

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, **

Some of them whimpered.

**and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Percy," groaned Hermes.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"Yes, yes, yes!" Poseidon said. "Finally!"

**The passengers cheered. "Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Poseidon whimpered again.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Lots of things, Percy, lots of things."

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?" **

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Worse." Apollo said darkly. He knew better than anyone how cruel the fates could be.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. **

"Who wouldn't get scared after hearing that?"

**"What are you talking about?" **

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

Poseidon breathed a little more calmly after hearing that.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Smart girl," Artemis said.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. I really wanted to tell him my favorites were blue roses. **

"And that's the end," Frank said.

There was a long silence. "Who wants to read now?"

Poseidon quickly took the book from the son of mars.

"If he gets so worried now, how do you think he will get when the real action starts?" Seph whispered to Annabeth.


	4. Fire vs Water

**Anas Sagrera: I'm glad you like it! :D Soon all of that will be answered. **

**Kaylee90: I'll update soon! **

**Refban90: Thanks! **

** : Gracias! Me alegra te guste, y sí, Apollo se refería a eso. ****Actualizo Pronto!**

**DeathToPink: Glad you like it! Soon you'lldeserve romance. **

* * *

><p>Poseidon flipped the pages and opened the book in the right chapter. He started reading without asking if they were ready.<p>

"**Chapter 3 GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**...I really hope, for that Satyr's safety, that it's not in the way I think it is." Posedion said darkly. Everyone made a comment about that. Hermes, Ares and Apollo smirked. Aphrodite made a face of disgust. Seph rolled her eyes.

"Get your head out of the gutter, Lord Poseidon," Seph said. "It's nothing like that."

Poseidon looked relieved. Hera, on the other hand, frowned. "You know a lot about Percy, huh? Why is that?"

"She's my BFF," Seph said, to which Jason snorted on his hand.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Everyone groaned.

"Why I'm not surprised?" sighed Poseidon.

Seph smiled sheepishly to her friends as they rolled their eyes and groaned.

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

Hera snorted. It was more than rude.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead girl, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

Zeus frowned, thinking of Thalia.

"Stupid satyr," he muttered under his breath.

"Who wouldn't be freaked out?" said Artemis.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

Hermes face lit up.

"Don't even think about it," Poseidon warned.

Hermes pouted.

"Anyway, Percy doesn't live the anymore," Seph said.

"In your time, but in ours...she's still there," smirked Hermes.

Seph's smile disappeared. If Hermes or any god went there and saw baby Percy, they'll discover _she_ is Percy.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She's amazing!" Annaneth said.

"She's beautiful," Jason said. Sally and Paul Jackson had visited Camp Half-Blood at the end of the war. And she had been so nice and motherly towards everyone...

"The best cookie maker ever," said Nico.

Seph smiled. "The best mom ever,"

"She's a queen," Poseidon said.

"Awwwwww!" said Aphrodite.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. **

The gods nodded slowly. It usually was like that.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, **

The goddesses glared at Zeus.

"What?" he asked innocently. "It's not my fault which mortals are in the planes I crash."

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. **

Piper and Jason felt a pang of pain build in their stomach. Before being on foster homes, Leo spent little time with an aunt who hated him.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. **

**A**thena made a thinking sound. It seemed like Poseidon finally dated someone intelligent.

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma. The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Poseidon and Seph smiled.

"Awwwww!" sighed Aphrodite.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. **

The gods froze, and Poseidon smiled.

"You visited her?" grunted Hades.

"Yes," Poseidon said.

"How dare you!?—" started Zeus.

"Don't be an hypocrite, brother," Poseidon said. "We all know you visit your kids too."

That shut him up effectively.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

"Of course," the gods muttered.

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

Some gods smiled. Annabeth nodded slowly, it wasn't the truth, but it wasn't a lie either. Piper wondered for a while how would it be if her father knew the truth about Aphrodite.

"I like this woman more and more every time," Hermes said. "It's not a lie, but not the complete truth either."

"She sounds very smart," Athena nodded.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. **

"That's how a mother is supposed to be," Hephaestus said, glancing up at Hera. She ignored him, immerse on what Poseidon was reading.

**But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Figures," snorted Nico.

Seph rolled her eyes.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, **

"But..." Hazel said. "I thought your stepfather's name was Paul...?"

Seph chuckled. "You're talking to a book, Hazel."

Hazel blinked, noticing she said it out loud, and the gods had heard her. "Uh...I mean, I thought Percy's stepfather name was Paul...isn't it?"

"Well, yes," Seph said.

"But that's the second one," Annabeth explained. "She was married to Gabe first, and then she married Paul."

Seph opened her mouth to say something, but her father interrupted her. "Is she happy?"

"Yeah," Seph smiled. "Paul's a good man."

**who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. **

Poseidon frowned.

Seph sighed as her friends looked at her.

**When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. **

Everyone snorted.

"Of course Percy did it," Piper rolled her eyes.

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Aphrodite and Apollo gagged. The goddesses crunched their noses.

"Ew," said Piper.

"That's so charming," Hazel ironised.

Athena, on the other hand, frowned. A mortal smelling that bad could.._.oh_...Sally Jackson was indeed a smart woman.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along**

"He ever hit you?" jumped Jason, turning to Seph.

Luckily, the gods ignored them.

Seph shrugged, and Jason snarled at the book.

"Nobody touched my bro," he said.

The demigods smiled.

**...well, when I came home is a good example. I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Ugh, the typical jerk stepfathers look," Demeter said.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"That's it?" said Poseidon, glaring at the book.

"No "_Welcome back. Good to see you, stepdaughter, how have you been this last six months were I didn't see you_?"" Apollo scoffed. "What an idiot."

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

A couple of demigods and gods laughed, while Apollo chuckled at the similitude of his words and Percy's. Seph smiled softly at Apollo.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Omg!" Aphrodite said, looking green.

"Ugh, he's so handsome," Hazel said sarcastically.

"I'd literally marry him if I could," said Piper.

"Same," Hera said.

The gods and demigods looked at each other.

"That's...sarcasm, right?"

They looked at each other and laughed, leaving the boys even more confused.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. **

"Great," Poseidon said sarcastically. "My daughter grows up with an alcoholic gambler."

"That's not the worst he was," Seph whispered.

Annabeth, the only one that heard her, frowned and turned to her. "What?"

She shook her head. "Lord, please continue."

**Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "stepdaughter/stepfather secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. **

The whole place shook. The lights started to flicker, and down on earth, an earthquake shook the earth, and a horrible tsunami followed.

"_HE. DID. WHAT_?" boomed Poseidon. He was glowing with a powerful aura and golden light that the demigods knew not to look at.

"Poseidon, please, calm down..." Athena tried.

"THAT BEAST HIT MY DAUGHTER?" he asked, turning to the person who seemed to know more about Percy than anyone. "Answer, child, what else did he do to my princess?"

Out of the fact that her father just called her a princess, Seph was very, very scared. She'd never seem her father so angry. "Lord Poseidon...I don't think I'm the indicate person to tell you—"

"ANSWER," he snarled.

In a second, Seph mind nearly blowed. He didn't knew she was his daughter. He could kill her if she didn't answered, because he didn't knew she was his daughter..."He hit her a couple of times..."

"And?" Artemis said worriedly, not liking how hesitant the girl sounded.

"I don't know, okay?" Seph snapped. "It's not like I know everything about her, okay? Stop asking questions."

Poseidon opened his mouth, but Athena sighed. "She's right, just leave it like that. Uncle Poseidon, I'm sure you'll have your revenge, but not now."

He turned to her with a murderous glance, but since the majority of the gods and demigods nodded, he settled down, and continued reading reluctantly.

"This isn't over," he said. "I'm killing that man."

"We know," Hades assured him.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Aphrodite shuddered again.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Athena blinked. If she was correct—and she always was—then Sally Jackson was the most selfless woman in the world.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"Ugh, just give her a break!" sighed Apollo, rolling his eyes.

Seph snorted. "As if."

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. **

The goddesses all crunched their noses in disgust. The demigoddesses all shuddered.

"You asked me once why I hated men so much," Artemis said, turning to Aphrodite. "That's why. Men's are pigs."

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table.**

"I hope he loses," Apollo said, glaring at the book in Poseidon's hands.

Seph glanced at him, smiling a bit. She remembered what the possible next line was, and that made her smile.

**"I hope you lose."**

Someone snorted.

"Percy's like Apollo," Hermes noticed.

"Great minds thinks alike, "Apollo said.

**"Your report card came, brain girl!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Ugh, I hate him so much," Demeter said.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. ****_Home sweet home. _**

Chuckles.

"I love Percy's sarcasm," Piper said.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic, how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone- something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

Everyone stopped breathing. The tension could be cut with a knife. Then, Poseidon read the next line.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

Everyone breathed in relief.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. **

"Awwww," the goddesses cooed.

Seph blushed.

Nico snickered, a sound that surprised a few.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. **

Poseidon was smiling as he read that. He still loved Sally. Maybe not as much as before, but that love was still there.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe."Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.**

Apollo and Hermes swooned. Artemis rolled her eyes at them. "We ate a couple of minutes ago!"

"Still hungry," they replied, both of them conjuring candies.

**She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about me getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little girl doing all right?**

Hera smiled softly. Sally sounded like an amazing mother.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really**, **really glad to see her.**

"Awwww," cooed Aphrodite.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally, how about some bean dip, huh?" **

Poseidon gritted his teeth.

**I gritted my teeth. My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Or to a god," smirked Hermes.

"Shut up," Poseidon said. "I'm married."

"Yes. But is it happily?"

"Yes," Poseidon said sharply.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started chok-ing up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad. Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie to her," Hermes said softly. "She'll understand."

Ares raised an eyebrow at his half brother. "I thought you encouraged everyone to lie."

"Not to mom," he said. "Never to mothers."

Hera smirked even though she wasn't his mother.

**I felt bad lying. **

"As you should," Hera said.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No, no," Poseidon said. "Sally would understand. She can see trough the Mist."

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. "I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

Both Seph's and Poseidon's face lit up.

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Poseidon frowned again. His daughter was supposed to be able to go to the beach every time she wanted to.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?" **

"I've met a lot of arrogant and idiot mortals," Apollo said. "But never one I wanted to punch so much."

"Same," said Hades, surprising a lot of people.

**I wanted to punch him, **

"Me too," Jason said.

The demigods all nodded.

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"Oh, he will," said Poseidon with a glare.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Mmm, bribery," Hermes said. "I really, really like this woman."

Poseidon gave him a warning glance, and Hermes decided not to compliment Sally Jackson again. At least not in front of Poseidon.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?" **

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

Aphrodite gasped dramatically. "No! Not the clothes budget!"

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologies for interrupting my poker game."**

"Maybe if I put an arrow in your slimy little balls you'll shut the fuck up—"

"Apollo! Language!" Hera yelled.

The demigods snickered. Artemis rolled her eyes.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Ares laughed. "This kid is pure metal! I like her."

Seph made a gagging gesture.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

Athena smiled softly, being the only one, apart from Annabeth and Seph, that knew why Sally married Gabe.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"Did I say how much I love her sarcasm?" Hazel smirked.

"You've mentioned it before, yes," Seph smirked.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement**.

Nico blinked. "Wait...he has a brain?"

Jason smirked at Nico.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"Knew it," Jason said. "His brain's too small to actually notice sarcasm."

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes, the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride, as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. **

"And he didn't helped?" frowned Hestia.

"Nope," Seph said.

**He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro for the whole weekend.**

"Asshole," Hades whispered. Women should be treated better than that. Honestly, the girl was 12. And the way he talked to Sally...that angered him. You should always treat your wife better than that.

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain girl," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch." **

"Like she's gonna drive," Apollo scoffed. "She's 12."

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

"Damn," Hermes said. "You two think the same things."

Apollo smirked, while Seph shared a look with Annabeth.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Asshole."

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

Everyone laughed. The gods shared a look. The girl was twelve and did that. She was seriously something.

Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I** didn't stay long enough to find out. I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"Smart girl," Artemis said.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,

Athena and Annabeth both shuddered.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

"Of course she did," snorted Frank.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad. As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

Poseidon smiled. That's what he loved most about Sally: Her love for the sea.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"So many blue!" Jason said.

"What's your deal with blue, anyway. I've know you for years now, and I still don't understand," Nico said.

"Talking to a book," Seph said in a warning voice. Nico then realised he'd asked her in front of the others like she was Percy.

"You know what I mean," he said. "What's her deal with blue?"

"If you continue reading, you'll know," Seph said.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Please," Aphrodite said.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. **

"The dumbness of this man is giving me a headache," Athena said.

"Uh, what about blueberries?" Poseidon said. "And other blue food? There do is blue food..."

"Actually, blueberries are purple, but yes," Athena said.

**They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. **

A lot of people smirked.

"I like this woman," Hermes said again.

**This, along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano**

"Who would want that?" shuddered Artemis.

**was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

Seph smiled.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. **

Poseidon smiled softly.

**Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. "He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too." **

Some gods nodded.

"Couldn't be a better description of you," Hestia said.

He smiled at her.

**You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

The gods, finally having a physical description of Percy, started to imagine what she would look like. Poseidon specially. He imagined a beautiful girl with Sally's smile and his hair and eyes.

Slowly, Hades turned to the only girl in the room with that description. He seemed to be the only one that realized a girl just like that was sitting with them. He frowned, and looked to the smartest goddess in the room. Athena, noticing his look, nodded her head slowly. 'Yes. That's Percy Jackson.'

"She must be so pretty," Aphrodite sighed.

"She is," Nico said.

"I thought she wasn't your type," Seph said.

"SERIOUSLY!" Nico sighed exasperated. "Stop it,"

"Lord Poseidon," Annabeth said. "Please read,"

"Oh...sure,"

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud." I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive girl with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Oh, Percy..." Piper sighed. "Nothing of that matters."

"I know that now," Seph whispered.

"Very, very proud," Poseidon assured, making Seph blush.

Then, she felt her neck tingle. All her senses jumped. Something was watching her.

"You guys feel that?" she asked.

"Feel what?" Nico asked.

"The sensation that someone's watching you?" Hazel said slowly.

Seph nodded.

"I was hoping it was my imagination," Frank gulped.

"Is something wrong?" Hera asked.

"Uh...no," Annabeth said.

"We're probably just being paranoid," Seph said, shaking her head.

"Figures," Jason said. "It's the first time in years we're not worried about monsters or something attacking us, taking us by surprise.."

"Yeah...you may continue reading, Lord Poseidon."

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean...when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

All the gods and goddesses glared at Zeus, the one who made that stupid rule.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

Poseidon nodded. "I visited her once. As a baby. Sally didn't knew..."

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...I felt angry at my father. **

Poseidon's smile was replaced by a hurt look. Hermes winced in sympathy. He knew how it felt to have a son/daughter that hated him.

**Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom.**

"I wanted to," Poseidon said softly.

Seph's eyes widened, along with Hera's.

**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Percy!"

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good," Hera said. "That's was rude and uncalled for."

Seph twitched in annoyance.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy. "Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me. All the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

"That's not easy," Frank said.

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. **

Some eyes widened at that.

"Probably a monster," Artemis said.

**When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"A Cyclops?" Hazel frowned.

Poseidon shrugged. "I probably sent it to spy on her,"

**Before that, a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. **

"WHAT?"

"How can you do that accidentally?!"

"Demigod's life," Nico said.

**My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

They all gasped.

"But...how...what...?"

"Hercules did that, right?" Nico said.

"But he had, like, super strength or something," Ares said distractedly.

"She's just that amazing," Seph said smugly.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

Everyone sighed.

That was_ so_ Percy.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?" **

"Camp," everyone corrected.

"One: talking to a book. Two: she already knows."

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Uh...okay, I know this had nothing to do with the situation," Frank said. "But...am I the only one that still feels it?"

"I'm sorry," Hephaestus said. "Feel what?"

"The sensation of being watched," Frank said.

"Nope," Seph said. "I still feel it."

"Me too," Piper said.

The gods frowned, looking at each other. "You guys really feel that?"

They all nodded, their senses up.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good."**

"Never," Seph said softly. Relaxing a bit. That sensation was probably their imagination. After the war agains Gaea they've all been a little shaken.

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry. That night I had a vivid dream. **

Seph sighed.

That was the beginning of all her vivid dreams.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. **

Everyone turned to Zeus and Poseidon.

"Why's that now? What are you two fighting about now?" Hades rolled his eyes.

"I don't know," Zeus said.

"It hasn't happened yet," Poseidon said.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Slowly, everyone caught a glance at Hades.

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon guys, my voice is everything but monstrous."

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. **

The gods caught their breaths.

"No," Ares said.

"It can't be," Zeus said.

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"Ha! I won," Zeus said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**I woke with a start. Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane." I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten**.

"Why did you forget, Uncle P!" Hermes said dramatically.

Poseidon rolled his eyes.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"Who is it now?"

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Huh?"

Athena rolled her eyes. "Think of the chapter title."

"What?...Oh."

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror. Not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the **middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-

Apollo and Hermes smirked, to which the goddesses rolled their eyes, Seph included.

**and where his legs should be...where his legs should be...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!" Grover ran for the Camaro, but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"That was dramatic," Piper said.

"That's the end—"

A loud roar interrupted them. The Demigods jumped up, arms at the ready. The gods jumped surprised.

An ugly old creature emerged from the shadows. It was a big creature with black fur, big bright red eyes, enourmous claws and fangs. It looked pretty much like an enormous bear, but the poisonous red eyes and claws left it very clear it was not a common monster.

"That's...the thing that was in that room!" Piper gasped.

"What room?" the gods asked.

"Doesn't matter now," Jason said.

They were all frozen in their spots. Waiting to see what the monster would do.

The beast looked at every one of them in the eye. Cleverness shined in its eyes as it seemed to be searching for someone. Then, it's eyes found Seph's. The animal growled dangerously, it's mouth opening and brewing fire. Seph did what first came to her mind: She raised her hands, water surged from inside her, battling with the monster's fire. The other demigods jumped to the fight. Frank the elephant slammed himself onto the beast, momentarily distracting it. Jason flew over it, striking it with lighting. Annabeth, Nico, Hazel and Piper stabbed him a dozen of times with their swords. Seph was occupied blocking the bear's fire with her powers.

But nothing seemed to stop him, or even slow him down. The gods watched from afar. The old laws keeping them from helping the demigods.

Nico started to conjure his powers. Jason flew to his side, blocking him from receiving a bite from the monster, which now seemed to like the idea of biting more than blowing fire.

"Aren't you supposed not to use your powers!?" Jason yelled.

Nico glared up at him. "You got a better idea!?"

"Actually...Yes!"

Jason raised his sword, Nico did the same. They both joined their swords, their powers intertwining together as the sky and the underworld fought together. Storms starting to blew in, attacking the monster as ugly zombies battled him too.

"That's so freaking awesome!" Seph yelled.

The monster turned its attention to the girl. It seemed to get angrier, as it pushed the zombies to the side with such force that they all lose parts of their bodies. The monstrous animal ran towards Seph, who was too slow to move. The animal opened its mouth, and blew fire.

"_PERCY!" _

"LOOK OUT!"

_"NO!" _


	5. The Jacksons bullfight

When Percy woke up for the first time, she couldn't move her body. It was too painful to do so. She looked with the corner of her eye to her body, and with a start she realized she was full of bandages.

She whimpered, pain suddenly erupting from her sides.

"Don't move, sweetheart," a voice at her left side called. She tried to move her head to see who it was, but even that little movement gave her pain. "I'm sorry," the voice said. "This shouldn't hurt too much..."

Suddenly, Percy recognised the voice. "Apollo?"

"Mmm," the god answered. He was cleaning and changing some of her bandages, all while trying to ease the pain off her body. He kept glancing at the girl as he worked. "What do you remember?"

"Uh..." Percy closed his eyes, trying to collect her thoughts. "There was this thing—this monster—and...and...it blew fire...on me?"

Apollo pursed his lips.

Percy gasped. "Oh my gods, is that why I am full of bandages, am I all burned up?"

"Percy," Apollo said, his voice full of seriousness. He approached her face, so she wouldn't have to hurt herself even more trying to look at him. She blinked. Did he called her..."Percy, that wasn't fire," he said. "That was venom."

A long shocked silence followed. "But...but it looked like...then how am I...what did you..."

Apollo silenced her. "You should rest," he said. He put a hand on her forehead, and Percy's eyelids started to close.

"No, wait...what...what happened?...how...how did you know I'm...I'm..."

"Shhh," Apollo chided. "We'll talk later, now you need to rest."

Percy wanted to protest, but her eyes were already closed.

...

After that, she woke up a couple of more times, but she couldn't remember them all. But she remembered seeing her friends and some gods there visiting her. But...even that was kind of blurry.

After some time, she woke up again. As she blinked a couple of times, adjusting her eyes to the whiteness of the room, she noticed her body didn't hurt anymore. The bandages on her body had disappeared.

Slowly, she sat on the bed. Percy glanced around the room. It looked just like a hospital room would look, except with the godly smell of nectar and ambrosia.

"Apollo?" Percy called. She gasped softly a how her voice sounded. She raised a hand and caressed her throat softly. She tried again. "Anyone?"

She heard movement on the halls outside. The door opened gently, and Apollo entered. For Percy's astonishment, he looked like a proper doctor. He didn't had the rocker look he always rocked. He even had his golden locks stiffly brushed back.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," he smirked.

"Good morning..." Percy said slowly.

"How are you feeling?"

Percy blinked. "I...I don't know...what...what happened to me?"

Apollo smiled sympathetically at her. "Let me cheek you..."

"No, please, just tell me what happened. I'm so confused..." she said. "Did they killed the monster? How am I alive if it bathed me in venom...—"

"Percy," Apollo interrupted. "I will answer your questions now, just let me check you, okay?"

He approached the bed, taking out a stethoscope in the way. Percy straightened. He cheeked her heart beats for a couple of seconds, then he checked her ears and mouth and nose. Just like a normal doctor would.

Then he cupped her face with his left hand. Slowly checking for any other burn mark he could heal. But Percy's face was as sculpted as before the incident. She looked at him wide eyed as he invaded her personal space, scrutinising her face. "It looks good. It healed sooner than I thought."

"What?" Percy asked as Apollo let he race go. "What happened to my face?"

"Percy, a monster blew venom on your whole body. What do you think happened to your face?" Apollo said.

She gulped. "Was it...was it bad?"

"It was," Apollo admitted. "You're lucky the god of medicine was here to save you." Then, he looked at her. "Take your top off."

Percy blinked, her eyes widening. "Excuse me?"

"I need to check your other injuries, Percy," Apollo explained gently and patiently. "Like I said, your whole body burned up quite quickly with the venom. I managed to heal all your body, but you'll have a couple of new scars. I need to check them, to make sure they don't get infected. Now. May I?"

Percy nodded slowly, getting out of bed slowly. She looked down, only then realising she was wearing other clothes. She had a blue top with high waist shorts. She looked at Apollo questioningly.

"Aphrodite," he said.

She nodded. Slowly, under Apollo's eyes, she took off her top.

Apollo chuckled at Percy's blush. "You're so cute," he cooed, jokingly. "Is this the first time you undress in front of someone?" As he talked he approached and kneeled in front of Percy.

She didn't answered, her cheeks were even redder than before, making Apollo smirk again before resuming his Doctor seriousness.

Percy jumped when Apollo touched her lower back and her stomach. She looked down, only to see a nasty burn mark where Apollo's hand was. She suck in breath.

"They look better," he said, noticing her look. Slowly, Percy felt a burning sensation coming out of Apollo's hands.

He looked up at her. "Does it hurt?"

Percy shook her head no.

"Don't lie," he said, but his tone of voice wasn't reprimanding, it was soft and gentle.

"I'm not lying," she said.

"Yes you are," he said. "You can't lie. Not to me."

Percy narrowed her eyes at him. She was a really good liar...

Apollo smiled, like if he read her mind. "I'm the god of truth. I know when someone's lying."

"Oh," Percy said.

Apollo finished with the stomach and back. He rose, and moved around, looking at Percy's body. He stopped when he saw her left arm. "I don't know how we didn't saw this before."

"I'm Greek," she said. "I'm not Roman..."

"We know, Percy," Apollo said. He took his arm gently, examining the SPQR tattoo. "I never knew of a Greek being in Camp Jupiter."

"The future's pretty messed up," Percy said.

"I can see that," he said. With his fingers he draw the trident on her arm. She looked at him, something moving on her stomach, giving her the sensation of nervousness. He let go of her hand, and continued his work.

After a while, Apollo finished with Percy's wounds. She looked down at herself. The burn marks she could see were less red and more shrunk. She looked up at Apollo.

"Thank you," she said.

He just nodded, turning away from her. She dressed again as Apollo moved a chair to sit in front of the demigoddess.

"Now...ask away," he said. "I know you're dying to."

Percy sucked in breath as she tried to select one often millionth questions she had.

She settled for "What happened?"

Apollo sighed. "Well, after Athena's daughter yelled your name in front of all of us, and how we saw you make that water shield...we finally understood. You are Percy Jackson."

Percy closed her eyes. "Everybody knows?"

Apollo nodded.

Percy shook her head, pushing that to the back of her mind. "What happened after that? Do my friends killed the monster? How am I alive? Is everybody all right?"

"Calm down, Sweetheart," he said. "Everyone's all right. Poseidon killed the monster—"

"He broke the ancient law?"

"You're his daughter, of course he broke it," Apollo said, leaking Percy grin. "After that, I hurriedly took you in arms and brought you here, where I did the possible, and the impossible too, to save your life."

Percy blinked. She looked at Apollo. On her time, he'd always found a way to help her when she asked. Here, here he saved her life again.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"It's okay," Apollo said.

For a moment, they were both in silence. Percy could feel Apollo's eyes on her, still inspecting her.

"You know, we all started to fell in love with Percy Jackson," Apollo said, making Percy look at him again. "Even when we've only read a couple of chapters about your life, we fell in love with you. I mean, you seem brave, and funny, and honestly, you're the only demigod we've ever gave so much attention. Your father is proud of you, so so proud of you. Athena thinks you're very smart. Hestia loves you. Zeus and Hades will probably never admit it, but they care about you too...Hermes loves you, so does Aphrodite, my sister wants you on her group of hunters...Hell, even Ares is softening to you."

Percy shook his head. "And now you all hate me, right? Because I lied."

Apollo seemed surprised by her statement. "What? Of course not! We understand why you did it. It must be hard to have people reading about your life."

"It is," Percy said. "I never wanted to lie to you guys, but I didn't had another way of protecting myself."

"You don't have to explain things to me, Percy," Apollo interrupted. "I understand."

Percy nodded softly, looking down to the floor.

"You know...I fell in love with the brave, funny and innocent demigoddess too," Apollo said.

Percy looked up again. "What?"

"—And now that I know that you are Percy..."

"You're disappointed?"

"I'm even more in love with you," Apollo said. "And I mean brotherly love, not romantic love—"

"I know," Percy said.

"—You're beautiful, and what you did back there with the monster...that was the bravest thing I've ever seen someone do."

"Then you haven't seen a lot of demigods," Percy said.

"Percy, I'm trying to be nice to you," Apollo said exasperated. "Can't you accept a compliment?"

Percy smiled softly. "Probably not."

Apollo rolled his eyes sighing.

"Everybody ends up falling in love with the hero," she said after a while. "I'm a Mary Sue. I've had a lot of people in love with me before. I notice it, I just don't say anything. Luke loved me, Rachel had a crush on me, Calypso fell hard over me, Reyna literally told me we could be more than friends, Nico had a crush on me for years..."

"You're beautiful," Apollo said. "It's normal if someone falls in love with you."

Percy liked that Apollo didn't mentioned that there were more girls than boys in her love life. Many people freaked out or find that nasty.

"Sometimes I think I'm just too fucked up for love," she admitted.

Apollo snorted. "There's no such thing as that. Look at me! My love life is the worst love life ever—" Percy snort stopped him. He continued as if he didn't heard her. "It always ends in tragedy. You're still young and beautiful, Percy. Don't ever give up little cousin."

For a second, Percy didn't knew what to say.

Then, she smiled widely. "You're my favourite god, you know that?"

Apollo grinned widely.

"Why, thank you my dear," he made a pompous bow, which made Percy giggle. "Now, if you're feeling better, let's go to find your friends. Everybody is waiting for you."

...

* * *

><p>"You're driving me bezerk!" Annabeth said, totally exasperated. "Stop it. We all are worried about her—"<p>

"It's been a week, Annabeth!" Jason said. "A week, and no word about her."

"We're like prisioners here," Piper scoffed. ""Don't go there. Don't do this.""

"I don't like it either," Annabeth said. "But running away isn't the solution. Where should we go? Hmm? Do I need to remind you guys this is not our time? They're keeping us apart from them for a reason. You saw it yourself. That wasn't the ony monster that came here."

"I still don't understand," Frank said. "How come monsters are entering Olympus. This is sacred ground. The gods live here. I don't get it..."

"Athena said it herself," Annabeth started. "Coming here from the future created a small paradox that permitted monsters to enter Olympus."

"Isn't a paradox something bad? Like, end of the world bad?" Hazel said.

"I don't know much about it," Annabeth admitted. "But you heard them; the gods are taking care of it themselves."

"Is that a good thing?"

"The question should be if the monsters are gone, or if the stopped the small paradox or if Percy is okay..."

"We may never know," Nico said, frowning. "And I don't like knowing important stuff."

"Since when?" a voice asked from the door.

They all turned. Percy was grasping herself to Apollo's hand as they walked towards them. She struggled to stay on her feet, something everybody noticed, but since Apollo saw her determinate to be with her friends, he let it go.

Annabeth was the first to react. She ran towards them and helped Percy to sit down on one of the couches. Apollo said something on Percy's ear, and then he disappeared. When he was gone, everybody attacked Percy with hugs.

"We were so worried about you," Jason said.

"Why, bro, why so worried?" Percy grinned. "I'm a strong woman. I can resist everything. Now what was that you guys were fussing over?"

...

* * *

><p>"—I'm telling you, having them here is a huge risk! Don't you see what happened?! The border no longer exists! Monsters running around us!" Hera said, totally horrified.<p>

"It's all their fault!"

"We should kill them," Ares suggested. "Problem solved."

"Killing them is not the solution!" Athena said, trying to make them all reason.

"No, but it'll be easier," Dionysus said.

Poseidon roared in anger. "My daughter is there! We're not killing those demigods."

"SILENCE!" Zeus thundered.

Lightning cracked in the room. Everybody went silent. Zeus sighed angrily, passing a hand over his beard. "Can we kill all those monsters?"

Everyone started talking at the same time again.

"ATHENA," Zeus roared. "I asked Athena!"

Everybody shut up, and Athena moved forwards his father. She bows her head. "Yes, my lord."

"Problem solved then," Zeus said. "Lets kill them."

The gods started to bicker again, but Zeus shut them up with a look.

"No one is killing anyone!" Zeus roared. "Enough! It is enough! Artemis, Athena, Ares, Apollo and Hermes," he called the best fighters. "Go kill the monsters. Hera, Hestia and Demeter, tell the demigods were going to continue reading as soon as we finish with the monsters. The rest of you, go and do whatever you were doing before...Brothers...let's talk."

Hades and Poseidon faced their brother.

...

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we caused a paradox," Percy said, chewing on her third pizza slice. The demigods were having a 'sleepover party'. Everyone was on their pyjamas, and they were talking about everything that happened.<p>

"Says the girl that caused the Apocalypse with a nosebleed." Nico scoffed.

Percy bitch-faced him. "At least I don't...I don't...damn, I don't know how to answer to that."

Everybody laughed. Percy pouted.

A figure appeared on the door. Nobody noticed, but the figure just smiled after seeing Percy laughing with her friends.

"Percy's a disaster," Hazel joked. "Causes the Apocalypse, causes a paradox—"

"Hey, the paradox was not my fault!" Percy said. "And you heard Athena, the nose thingy wasn't my fault either."

Jason snorted. "We came here to read books about you, of course it's your fault the paradox."

Percy looked at Jason with her mouth open in shock. "I thought we were bros!"

Everybody laughed.

"We're joking, Percy," Piper said.

Percy pouted again. "Why are you guys bothering me?"

"So this is the real Percy," a voice called from the door.

Everybody turned. Poseidon was standing at the door, smiling softly at them all.

"Dad...I mean, Lord Poseidon—" Percy started, not really knowing how to address her father. She tried to stand up, but she couldn't, so she resigned with having to crack her neck to look at her father.

"Guys, can you leave us alone for a moment?" Poseidon asked gently, approaching them slowly. "I want to talk with my daughter for a moment. Head for the reading room, we'll start reading soon."

"Are the monsters gone?" Frank asked.

"Yes," Poseidon answered. "All danger is gone by now."

Percy gulped, but nodded at her friends to go. A

As they closed the door behind them, Percy faced her father.

...

* * *

><p>The demigods found themselves awkwardly sitting with the gods. What once was comfy and normal now seemed forced and awkward. It was clear for the demigods that the gods didn't trusted them. They obviously had new issues with what happened with the monsters.<p>

When Percy and Poseidon entered the room, the demigods felt at more ease. Poseidon was half hugging her daughter as they made their was over the couches.

"So...you're Percy," Hera said, looking at the demigoddess up and down.

"Yes," Percy said defiantly. "Got a problem with that?"

Hera just smiled darkly. Zeus gave her a look, and she pursed her lips, but said nothing.

"How are you feeling, hon?" Aphrodite smiled at her.

"Perfect," Percy said.

A long silence followed.

"Got any questions?" Percy crossed her arms, defying the gods with her eyes.

"Actually, yes," Hera said, to which Zeus glared at her warningly. "Why did you lied to us?"

"Can you blame me?" Percy snapped. "We're reading my life here! My thoughts, forgive me for wanting to have some privacy."

Zeus sensed his wife getting angry at Percy for talking to her like that, and he certainly didn't wanted Hera to met Poseidon's wraith, so he stopped the discussion. "Enough, if my niece is feeling better, I say we must continue reading."

Everybody looked at Percy, she was temped to say no, but she ended nodding.

After they'd settled down in the couches, Demeter took the book, opened it in the right chapter, and started to read.

**"Chapter 4, MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING." **

"Sally knows how to bullfight?" Ares frowned.

Poseidon shook his head worriedly.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas. Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. **

As everyone rolled their eyes, Apollo and Hermes shared a look. That sounded like a good prank to Aphrodite's wardrobe...

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Aphrodite shuddered.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom...know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"That sounds stalker-ish," Jason said.

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn...what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

"Ohhhh! He won't like that," Annabeth said.

"Satyrs hate to be compared to donkeys," Hermes nodded.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!" I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

The gods frowned at that.

They _hated_ being called myths.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" **

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

Everybody groaned.

"Just let it go already!"

"I was twelve and I thought I was going crazy! Give me a break," Percy huffed.

"Someone's cranky today," Apollo whistled.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why-"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

A few moved worriedly.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"Yes," Hestia said worriedly. "What is after them?"

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Grover!"

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. **

"Now that's a lie," Nico said. "You have the wildest imagination one could have."

Percy shrugged.

**I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

Everybody suddenly sighed. "Camp,"

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Not just some old ladies," Hades said. "The Fates."

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means, the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to—when someone's about to die."**

"He said _you_!" Hermes said, with a gasp. "Is he trying to scare her?"

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"Boys!" Artemis huffed. "Not the time to bicker!"

**"Boys!" my mom said. She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

Poseidon chanted the same under his breath desperately.

Percy's friends were almost as nervous as him.

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No shit, Sherlock," rolled her eyes Piper.

Percy glared at her momentarily, then she forced herself to calm down.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

Everyone gasped. Poseidon grasped his throne with such force that his hands went numb the second he tried to let go of his throne.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"Ouch,"

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay... ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. **

"Thank the gods," Hazel sighed.

**The car hadn't really exploded. **

Poseidon breathed in relief.

**We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. **

"ZEUS!" Poseidon roared.

"Hadn't done it yet!" he quickly said.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

"Oh, gods," Hestia said, "Is he...?"

"No!" Percy said, horrified. "He's alive."

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Awwwww," Aphrodite cooed.

Nico snorted.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Some chuckled, being too worried to actually care too much about funny things.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

Everybody gasped. Gods included.

"No!" Frank said.

"The freaking Minotaur!" Nico said, turning to Percy. "You fought the Minotaur before Manhattan?"

"Yup," Percy said, like it was nothing.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT," Hermes chanted.

"Hermes! Language!" Hera snapped.

"Fuck you," Hermes replied, too worried to care.

Before Hera could reply back, Demeter continued reading.

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?" **

Annabeth and Percy shared a smile.

Thalia's tree.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Thalia," Percy said softly.

"Huh?" Jason frowned.

"Long story," Annabeth said.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't..." Poseidon realized. "Oh, no..."

Everybody was even more worried now. Monsters usually didn't messed with humans, but still, it was dangerous.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

Poseidon's heart constricted.

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...**

Everybody sort of whimpered.

Percy sighed.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, **

"It's not her fault, sweetheart," Apollo said softly.

"I know," Percy replied.

**at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist- high grass.**

"Why is it so high?"

Dionysus shrugged, mentally thinking of putting a brat to cut the grass.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—**

"What. The. Fuck?"

**which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and- white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

Many people whimpered.

"Percy..."

"I'm okay," she snapped. "Can't you see? I'm sitting next to you guys."

She was ignored.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"Sadly," Artemis said. "He is."

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said**.

"Smart woman," Athena said. "Names have power."

**I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min-"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"Smart woman." Athena said again.

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

"No," Hephaestus chided. "You'll get scared."

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"He's blind," Athena explained.

Percy twitched in annoyance. "I know. We all know."

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. **

"Oops," Hermes and Apollo smirked.

**Oops.**

Everybody chuckled.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"Good plan," Ares admitted.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us. The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

Some whimpers were heard.

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

The girls crunched their noses.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

"NO NO NO NO NO," cried Poseidon.

"Dad, please, you're embarrassing me," Percy groaned. "Im right here..."

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"What?!" Hades said. "Monsters don't attack mortals."

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

Whimpers again.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"WHAT!? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!"

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

A long silence followed. Hestia reached forwards and grabbed Poseidon's hand in comfort_. I'm sorry_, her eyes said.

"But…how come…."

"She's not dead," Percy said.

"Then what…?"

"Spoilers,"

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

"Oh, hell yeah," Jason smirked. "Percy's gonna kick ass now."

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. I couldn't allow that.**

"Dang," Hazel said smirking. "When Percy's finished with that monster...poor Minotaur."

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

Annabeth groaned.

"Why do I feel like Percy's gonna make a dumb move now,"

Percy looked at her best friend.

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!" **

"Worst insult ever," Hermes grimaced.

"I was twelve," Percy repeated.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, **

Poseidon groaned, while Percy's friend sighed.

"Aren't all your ideas stupid?" Nico smirked.

Percy bitch-faced him.

**but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that. **

"Of course it didn't," Poseidon groaned.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down.**

Everybody froze. The gods looked at each other wide eyed.

"No," Percy said. "Not like that. It was demigods adrenaline,"

"Oh," the sighed in relief.

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck**.

"How in Olympus name did you do that?"

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Everybody winced.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils. The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

Everybody winced again.

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. **

"There she goes," Jason said excitedly. "Now she's gonna kick ass."

**I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. **

"Lol," Ares said. "That's not gonna happen."

Percy smirked at him.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

"Holy shit—" Ares said. "You...you were twelve..."

The gods stared at the girl in wonder. She blushed despite her anger.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. The monster charged. Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

Jason, Frank, Nico, Ares, Apollo and Hermes cheered.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart. The monster was gone.**

Everybody took a minute to stare at Percy, making her feel awkward.

"Damn girl," Hermes said.

She tried to smile.

Artemis kept looking at her, after all that she heard; she wanted Percy on her hunt.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, **

Some people threw pity looks in her way, but her glare stopped them from saying anything. The last thing she wanted was to be pitied.

**but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother,**

The goddesses felt like they were going to cry.

"Poor girl."

**but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

"So loyal," smiled Athena.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man, a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's, unlike mine, and a handsome boy with blond hair and electric blue eyes. **

Annabeth smiled at Percy, whispering on her ear. "Aww, you thought I looked like a princess?"

Percy smiled softly at her best friend. Then, their smiles disappeared when they realized who the boy was.

**They all looked down at me, and the girl said, "She's the one. She must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "She's still conscious. Luke, bring her inside."**

Hermes jumped. "Luke? My Luke?"

Percy nodded. Hermes smiled widely, clearly happy to hear of his son.

"That's the end of the chapter," Demeter said.

"I swear uncle P will have a heart attack before we finish these books," Apollo said looking at Poseidon, who was trying to calm down from his fright of hearing how her daughter fought the Minotaur.

"You okay, dad?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, I—what's that?" Poseidon pointed to something falling slowly from the ceiling.

It fell on Piper's hand. It was a yellow post-it note.

"A note," Piper said. "For all of us."

"Come forwards, child, and read it," Zeus ordered.

Piper did it.

_"Dear Gods and Demigods. We truly apologize for the inconvenient we caused bringing the demigods to your time. You all did a great job stopping the paradox. I'm happy to see none of you unfollowed my orders killing the demigods. My order still stands: you can't kill any of these heroes. They're far more important than a paradox. Now, I didn't write you all to apologize. I wrote you because we decided to bring more people along to read."_

"More people?" frowned Hera.

"Silence," Zeus ordered. "Continue, Piper."

_"We already filled them in, you just have to take them in, and whatever happens, don't judge nor kill._

_Sincerely, A."_

"Great," Hera said sarcastically. "More demigods."

"Hera that's enough," Zeus warned.

She pursed her lips.

"But who can be coming?" Annabeth frowned. "We're all here."

"No, not all," Piper said softly.

"Darling, he can't be coming..." Jason said gently, "You heard Nico and Hazel, he's...he's dead."

A bright yellow light filled the room, making everyone close their eyes. When they opened them, two people stood in the middle of the room. A boy and a girl. The boy looked like a Hispanic Santa clause. He was scrawny and short, but strong at the same time. His hair was black and his eyes were brown. He had a friendly smile on his lips. The girl, on the other hand, looked like a leader or a Goddess. She held herself proudly and firmly. Her dark hair was braided to the side, her eyes sparkling as she glanced at Nico and gave him a grin. A purple cloak floated at her back.

For a moment, the demigods were too shocked to react. The gods, on the other hand, were curious. "Demigods, introduce yourselves. Full names, any title you may have, godly parent, etc."

The girl took a step forwards. "I'm Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, daughter of Bellona, praetor of New Rome."

The boy moved forwards. "Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus—"

"Leo?"


End file.
